A paper-winding machine for making up individual rolls of paper, ranging from light newsprint to heavier cardboard, typically unwinds a very large roller of paper, slits it into a plurality of strips, and winds these strips up onto individual rolls. To do this the individual strips exit from the slitter and are wound partly around at least one support roller against which press two sets of windup rolls. Each set of windup rolls includes a plurality of coaxial winding stations adapted to hold respective core sleeves on which the strips are wound to form the finished rolls. Normally the strips alternate which set they are wound up on. Such systems are described in German patent documents 3,102,894 and 3,924,612 respectively filed 29 Jan. 1981 and 26 Jul. 1989 by H. Schonmeier, in European patent publication 562,266 filed by H. Fissmann et al with a claim to a German priority of 26 Mar. 1992, and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,099 of R. Hehner et al.
The support roller or rollers of the machine are normally driven so that they in turn drive the respective windup rolls. They each therefore carry much or all of the weight of the windup rolls, and even when fairly empty these rolls are pressed against the support rollers with some force to ensure that the windup rolls are coiled tightly. In fact the so-called wind quality of the windup rolls is largely a function of the line load which equals the pressing force per meter of windup-roll length and of the geometric relationships in the nip between the windup roll and the support roller. The problem is therefore that, when working at high production speeds, it is very difficult to set a predetermined uniform roll hardness, which is a function of the tension between the outer layers of the windup roll, without somehow marking or otherwise damaging the paper. In addition one must avoid that air is trapped in the windup roll or that the strip not travel straight and wander off the roll.